Mama’s Turn: A mother’s musical journey

Abstract

The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to document the musical journey of Sarah, a young mother taking piano lessons. The research questions explored how Sarah’s journey influenced her young children’s musical expressions, their expressed desires to participate in music outside of their current experiences, and Sarah’s experience of musical parenting. Data for this study included Sarah’s lesson notes, iPhone videos of piano practice and family interactions, emails related to the project, and interview transcripts from five interviews spanning 15 months and an additional interview over two years later. In addition, Sarah wrote a 3000-word reflection in which she identified three principles from her piano lessons that she applied to other areas of her life: “focus and attention, small and do-able, and quality over quantity.” We explore the interpersonal dynamics created by Sarah’s becoming the music learner in the family, the tension between enjoyment and guilt of a leisure pursuit, as well as her application of the principles.